GRG PRIVACY PRACTICES NOTICE

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed, and how you can get access to this information.

Our goal is to take all necessary steps to attempt to safeguard any medical or other personal information that is provided to us. We are required to: (i) maintain the privacy of medical information provided to us; (ii) provide notice of our legal duties and privacy practices; and (iii) abide by the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices currently in effect.

Who will Follow This Notice?

Greenwich Radiological Group provides health care to our patients in partnership with other professionals and healthcare organizations. The information privacy practices in this notice will be followed by:

Any healthcare professional who treats you at any of our locations, all employees, medical staff, affiliates, trainees, students in our practice.

What is Protected Health Information?

“Protected Health Information” is information that individually identifies you and that we create or get from you or from another health care provider, health plan, your employer, or a health care clearinghouse and that relates to (1) your past, present, or future physical or mental health or conditions, (2) the provision of health care to you, or (3) the past, present, or future payment for your health care.   

How We May Use and Disclose Information About You

We may use and disclose personal and identifiable health information (PHI) about you in different ways. All the ways in which we may use and disclose information will fall within one of the following categories, but not every use or disclosure in a category may be listed.

• For Treatment: We will use health information about you to furnish services to you, in accordance with our policies and procedures.
  
• For Payment: We will use and disclose health information about you to bill for our services and to collect payment from you or your insurance company.
  
• For Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose information about you for the general operation of our business.
  
• For Minors: We may disclose the Protected Health Information of minor children to their parents or guardians unless such disclosure is otherwise prohibited by law.
  
• For Research: We may use and disclose your Protected Health Information for research purposes, but we will only do that if the research has been specially approved by an authorized institutional review board or a privacy board that has reviewed the research proposal and has set up protocols to ensure the privacy of your Protected Health Information. Even without that special approval, we may permit researchers to look at Protected Health Information to help them prepare for research, for example, to allow them to identify patients who may be included in their research project, as long as they do not remove, or take a copy of, any Protected Health Information. We may use and disclose a limited data set that does not contain specific readily identifiable information about you for research. However, we will only disclose the limited data set if we enter into a data use agreement with the recipient who must agree to (1) use the data set only for the purposes for which it was provided, (2) ensure the confidentiality and security of the data, and (3) not identify the information or use it to contact any individual.
  
• As Required by Law:  We will disclose Protected Health Information about you when required to do so by international, federal, state, or local law.
  
• To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety: We may use and disclose Protected Health Information when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health or safety or to the health or safety of others. But we will only disclose the information to someone who may be able to help prevent the threat.
  
• Military and Veterans: If you are a member of the armed forces, we may disclose Protected Health Information as required by military command authorities. We also may disclose Protected Health Information to the appropriate foreign military authority if you are a member of a foreign military.
  
• Lawsuits and Disputes: If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose Protected Health Information in response to a court or administrative order. We also may disclose Protected Health Information in response to a subpoena, discovery request, or other legal process from someone else involved in the dispute, but only if efforts have been made to tell you about the request or to get an order protecting the information requested. We may also use or disclose your Protected Health Information to defend ourselves in the event of a lawsuit.
  
• Law Enforcement: We may disclose Protected Health Information, so long as applicable legal requirements are met, for law enforcement purposes.
  
• Military Activity and National Security: If you are involved with military, national security or intelligence activities or if you are in law enforcement custody, we may disclose your Protected Health Information to authorized officials so they may carry out their legal duties under the law.
  
• Coroners, Medical Examiners, and Funeral Directors: We may disclose Protected Health Information to a coroner, medical examiner, or funeral director so that they can carry out their duties.
  
• Our Business Associates: We sometimes work with outside individuals and businesses that help us operate our business successfully. We may disclose your health information to these business associates so that they can perform their responsibility. Our business associates must guarantee to us in writing that they will respect the confidentiality of your personal and identifiable health information. 
  
• Individuals Involved in Your Care or Payment for Your Care: We may disclose information to individuals involved in your care or in the payment for your care, but we will obtain your agreement before doing so. This includes people and organizations that are part of your “care team” — such as your spouse, your other doctors, or an aide who may be providing services to you. Although we must be able to speak with your other physicians or health care providers, you can let us know if we should not speak with other individuals, such as your spouse or family.
  
• Appointment Reminders: We may use and disclose medical information to contact you as a reminder that you have an appointment or that you should schedule an appointment. 

Other Uses and Disclosures of Personal Information

We are required to obtain written authorization from you for any other uses and disclosures of medical information other than those described above. If you provide us with such permission, you may revoke that permission, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your permission, we will no longer use or disclose personal information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization. We will be unable to take back any disclosures already made based upon your original permission.

Your Health Information Rights

You have the right to ask for restrictions on the ways in which we use and disclose your medical information beyond those imposed by law. We will consider your request, but we are not required, to accept it. 

You have the right to request that you receive communications containing your protected health information from us by alternative means or at alternative locations. For example, you may ask that we only contact you at home or by mail.

Except under certain circumstances, you have the right to inspect and copy medical and billing records about you. If you ask for copies of this information, we may charge you a fee for copying and mailing.

You have the right to a paper copy of this notice. You may ask us to give you a copy of this notice at any time. Even if you have agreed to receive this notice electronically, you are still entitled to a paper copy of this notice. 

If you believe that information in your records is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to correct the existing information or correct the missing information. Under certain circumstances, we may deny your request.

You have a right to ask for a list of instances when we have used or disclosed your medical information for reasons other than your treatment, payment for services furnished to you, our health care operations, or disclosures you give us authorization to make. If you ask for this information from us more than once every twelve months, we may charge you a fee.

You have the right to restrict certain disclosures of protected health information to a health plan where the service was paid out of pocket in full for the service.

You have the right to and will receive notification of a breach of your unsecured protected health information.

Modifications to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to make changes to this notice at any time. We reserve the right to make the revised notice effective for personal health information we have about you as well as any information we receive in the future. In the event there is a material change to this Notice, the revised Notice will be posted. In addition, you may request a copy of the revised Notice at any time. 

Contact Information

If you believe that your privacy rights may have been violated, or you disagree with a decision we made about access to your records, you may contact office and ask to speak with our Compliance officer, Joann Corbisere-Ashley, 203 869-6220.

If you have any complaints concerning our Privacy Policy, you may contact the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, at 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 509F, HHH Building, Washington, D.C. 20201 (e-mail: ocrmail@hhs.gov). To obtain more information concerning this Notice of Privacy Practices, you may contact Joann Corbisere-Ashley, our Privacy Officer.